Integrated impact assessment for land and water management
journal contribution
posted on 2024-06-21, 03:53authored byMichael MackayMichael Mackay, C. Nicholas Taylor, John Saunders, Paul Rutherford, Caroline Saunders
Impact assessment considers the future consequences of current or proposed actions, but multiple impact assessment types and silos of expertise make integration difficult.
When faced with the development of policy and planning for the complex bio-physical and social-economic systems found in river catchments, integrated impact assessment (IIA) becomes imperative.
IIA has well-recognised potential when considering multiple, intersecting impact domains in one impact assessment verses siloed technical workstreams, often not linked until the decision-making stage, and with little transparency around how integration transpires.
A "collective" and systemic view of all impacts is essential for understanding the causal relationships between system components and their full consequences including cumulative impacts.
Funding
Funded by the New Zealand Ministry for Business, Innovation and Employment's Our Land and Water National Science Challenge (Toitū te Whenua, Toiora te Wai) as part of project Measuring Full Impacts of Land-Use Change